Tag Archives: religion

You remember all the Bible stories about Jesus hating on the lepers and ostracizing the prostitutes and generally being mean to people not like Him? He was constantly a Divine Dick to all manners of people considered ‘sinners,’ because that’s what religion is all about.
The Arizona state legislature has taken those religious lessons to heart and crafted a wonderful bill (SB 1062) that would allow restaurants & businesses to refuse service to gays and anyone else they don’t want to because of their “religious beliefs.” The bill awaits the signature of Gov. Jan Brewer, and no one knows if she will sign or veto. However, it looks like some Republicans are willing to slap religious liberty in the face with their Senator-sized balls:
Oh god, our god, why hath they forsaken religion? Let’s wonksplore. Read more on Arizona Sees Unlikely Opposition To Anti-Gay Bill: Republicans?!?…

Mayor Tom Hayden of Flower Mound, Texas, made an official announcement Wednesday, issuing a proclamation that 2014 would be the Year Of The Bible, so that the city will be all Bible-y. It is a pretty bold move for a suburban mayor in a Texas town with a ton of churches, but maybe, by golly, it’s time for him to stand up and take the risk of saying something that would likely be completely satisfactory to his conservative, affluent constituents, no matter how much praise he might get for his courage in endorsing the religious views of the overwhelming majority. It’s good to see a mayor willing to do the easy thing, isn’t it? Read more on Mayor Of Flower Mound, Texas, Saves Bible From Complete Obscurity With Bold Declaration…

Hey, remember back in the day when hipster icon George W. Bush wanted to have a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting gay marriage? Apparently, ‘trickle-down bigotry’ works way better than ‘trickle-down economics,’ because White House lawyer Scott Bloch wanted to be like the Pied Piper, except rather than ridding the city of rats, he wanted to rid it of teh ghey, via Business Insider:
A federal investigation has revealed that a lawyer who headed the Office of Special Counsel (OSP) in the George W. Bush administration allegedly disliked gay workers so much that he tried to “ship” them to a new office in Detroit.
Lawyering is a tough business, and you never know when you’ll be nekkid and slip and fall butt-first on a gay penis and then become gay, so Scott was just being overly cautious. Read more on Bush White House Legal Genius Sought To Exile All Gays To Detroit, Because Ewww, Anuses…

You may have read about the performance-art “Satanists” who have offered to build a monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma Statehouse; under the law’s clause claiming that the state doesn’t favor “any particular religion or denomination,” it looks like the law pretty much says the state would have to allow it, right? Not so fast, says the American Patriarchy Association’s Bryan Fischer — don’t you know that when the Constitution talks about “religion,” it only means real religion, which is Christianity, duh.
“When the Founding Fathers use the word “religion” in the first amendment, they were referring to Christianity… they were trying to establish public policy for the federal government with regard to Christianity.”
He knows this for sure, because he has a “real good feel” for what they meant, based on the various drafts of the first amendment. After all, “establishment” of a church only refers to Christian churches. Not once did the Founders even consider freedom for Jews, Hindoos, or Mahometans. So you just take your dirty non-Christian churches and GTFO. Read more on Bryan Fischer Has Magic Constitution That Says First Amendment Is Only For Christians…

Uh-oh, you guys. It looks like Costco has made White American Jesus shed some tears from his shiny, manly blue eyes. In an obvious move to persecute Christians, Costco set up a lion pit and began throwing Christians into it. Not really, because that would actually be persecution. Rather, Costco accidentally labeled some Bibles as fiction. But not all Costcos — just one store in California. Clearly, there are only two options to rectify this: repeal Obamacare or INPEACH Costco. Probably both, to be on the safe side. Logic, bitches. Read more on Costco Persecuting All The Christians Again, Labels Book About Talking Snake Handing Out Fruit As ‘Fiction’…

Gosh, seems like it’s been forever since we’ve done one of these! Thanks, Rebecca, for keeping up with the genius auditions while we were on “vacation” last week. And let’s see what’s squirming around on the underside of the comment queue today… First up, our story on Martin Bashir’s culinary suggestion for Sarah Palin drew this brilliance from “RichieM232″:
Martin Bashir is a disgrace. Misogynistic scumbag. Should be kicked out of MSNBC. Considering his cultural background he probably still believes in stoning women. But it has no place in TV news in a civilized soceity.
And if anyone knows what a “civilized soceity” [sic] is, it’s a guy who assumes that anyone named “Bashir” has to be a lady-stonin’ Mahomettan savage, amirite? Tell us something of “his cultural background,” will you, O Source Of Much Knowledge?
“Bashir was born in Wandsworth, South London, to parents of Pakistani Christian origin … He identifies himself as a committed Christian”
Well, hell, your hidden Muslims all claim they’re Christians. Just like the Gettysburg-denier preznit.
On the other hand, we do think it’s worth mentioning that “Martin Bashir” anagrams to “harms Britain.” Read more on Deleted Comments of the Day: Didn’t You Guys Notice Martin Bashir Is An Ay-Rab?…

A blow for freedom has been struck! Students in Hendersonville, Tennessee, have been saved from the grip of sharia law, and it’s all thanks to alert parents who complained when they found out that an elective World Cultures honors course would be taking a field trip to a Hindu temple and a mosque. Outrage! Horror! The class studies five world religions, but the field trip only visited two houses of worship, one of which is actively trying to take over U.S. America! Concerned step-parent Mike Conner said, “If we as parents don’t begin speaking up, no one will.” How true this is. Thankfully, the wingnuttosphere has raised such a fuss about the threat of honors students learning something about Islam in a unit on world religions that the school has done the only responsible thing, and cancelled the field trip. Talk about a close call! Read more on Hero Tennessee Parent Discovers ‘World Culture’ Elective Includes Islam, Hijinks Ensue…

A federal appeals court upheld the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that insurance plans cover contraception, even when employers are personally offended by the idea that their slutty employees might be having sex in ways that the employers’ imaginary friends don’t approve of. A Catholic family that owns a controlling interest in two private companies had claimed that the contraception coverage would “force them to choose between violating the teachings of their church and suffering significant financial harm.” And here’s a fun little twist: it looks like the concept of “corporate personhood” played a role in the decision to deny the challenge to the ACA, because while corporations are people, they don’t go to church, my friend. Read more on Appeals Court Says Catholic-Owned Business Still Has To Pay For Slut Pill Insurance…

Oh. My. God. Libruls are TEH WORST! Damn hippies always seeking to create policy that benefits ‘the poors,’ when we all know that John Calvin, Wordy Shipmates, Shining City on a Hill, America, fuck yeah.
Who are the heretics today who seek to desecrate the foundational principles of Jesus’s Capitalist Emporium for Jesus? None other than Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Heart Flutters) and Ed Markey (D-New Guy). Per Daily Kos:
Since Congress isn’t going to pass sane policy like an increased minimum wage and sick leave anytime soon, it’s up to the blue states and cities to do it. Next up, we hope: Massachusetts, where a coalition has formed to get these measures on the 2014 ballot. The lead petitioners’ names will be familiar: Sen. Elizabeth Warren for the minimum wage, and Sen. Ed Markey for earned sick time.
While this might make New Pope happy, it will certainly anger the True Flock, who know that wealth is a sign that God loves you, which is why Jesus had a net worth of old sandals, some pieces of lumber, and some gently used nails. Read more on Nice Time: Liz Warren And Ed Markey Being Total Hippies Again…

Yesterday, we were among the nine million blogs that couldn’t believe that insanely hostile interview on Fox in which Fox’s Lauren Green kept badgering author Reza Aslan to explain his audacious act of being both a Muslim and a person who wrote a book about Jebus. Well, here’s some nice news: now that the video has gone viral, sales of the book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, have gone through the roof. The New York Times reports that Aslan’s publisher, Random House, says that sales have increased 35% in the two days following the video hitting the webospheres. We will just go out on a limb and guess that very few of those purchases came from Fox News viewers; the literate ones seem mostly to have been spamming the book’s reviews on Amazon. Read more on Nice Time: Fox News Accidentally Sends That Muslim’s Jesus Book To Number One…

Here is Fox News host Lauren Green doing what Fox News does best, channeling Fox News viewers’ mouth-breathing xenophobia into television programming. The lucky recipient is religious scholar Reza Aslan, author of Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, which attempts to sort out some facts about a socialist sandal-wearing hippie Palestinian troublemaker who was executed by the Romans. It’s the kind of historical scholarship that gets done all the time in academe, but that can freak out the faithful. But the interview doesn’t even get to the content of the book; it’s all about the fact that Reza Aslan is a Muslim who (gasp!) wrote a book about Jesus. Is that even allowed?
We’d bet that Lauren Green is not actually as heroically stupid as she appears to be here, asking again and again (ThinkProgress counted nine times in the full 10-minute interview) just why on earth a Muslim person would go and write a book about “the founder of Christianity.” We’ll give Aslan credit for not simply saying, “Don’t be silly. I wrote a book about Jesus, not about Saul of Tarsus.” Read more on Fox News Wants To Know Who Let Some Muslim Write A Jesus Book…

You might think that our Christianist textbooks would have the decency to mention this true historical event where Jesus handed the Constitution to America’s children while Washington, Lincoln, Adams and Hamilton sang show tunes, but this basic fact is strangely absent from the two textbooks we’ve been reviewing. They don’t even argue that the Constitution is directly inspired by the Bible, though possibly their having been written in the 1990s explains their exclusion of that bit of lunacy, which is mostly a recent product of the highly imaginative David Barton. Even so, there’s plenty of Godstuff to go around! Read more on Sundays With The Christianists: American History Textbooks That Are 3/5 Accurate…

Tony Perkins, head honcho at the Family Research Council, is a terrible human being. In fact, he may not be human. We are guessing he was projectile vomited from the rubbish-filled gut of a hate-filled demon and sent to earth to punish us for the amusement of the Greek gods, or something. What asinine hate-filled lies is he spewing now? After DOMA was repealed by SCOTUS, Perkins went on teevee to torture the eardrums of innocent Americans everywhere, saying:
“We’re already seeing bakers and florists and photographers forced to participate in same-sex marriages under the threat of law and in some cases even jail.”
Is that so, Mr. Perkins? Politifact decided to fact check you, because you are a known liar and bigot and awful demon-vomit life form. What did they find?
We didn’t find cases where people were forced to participate against their will. However, if vendors refuse service, there are consequences. There are 21 states that forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation. Vendors who refuse service there could face legal actions and fines.
The “jail” part of Perkins’ claim is an exaggeration. We couldn’t find any evidence that a vendor had been sent to jail or that any legal authority had threatened jail time.
What is this country coming to when we think that discrimination is against the law? Can’t we go back to the good old days when businesses can refuse service to Irish Italians Catholics Jews Blacks Gays without Big Government trampling all over their freedom? This deserves a wonksplanation. Read more on Tony Perkins Calls Anti-Discrimination Laws ‘Religious Persecution’ Because He Is A Terrible Person…

As astute Wonkers know, today is the day of that Family Research Council’s wacky funtimes prayerfest that is supposed to renew America. And by a happy coincidence, today’s installment of our series on American History books for Christian Homeschoolers will be looking at the 18th century wave of religious fervor known as “The First Great Awakening,” that mass outbreak of evangelism in Colonial America that both textbooks paint as a necessary precursor to the Revolutionary War. There’s no denying that the zealotry inspired by the charismatic preachers of the Great Awakening led to great social and political change; and since it was Protestant evangelical zealotry, it was just and holy. Of course, that sort of religio-political zealotry in another religion might be called “jihad,” and must be crushed. Read more on Sundays With The Christianists: American History Textbooks That Go Down On the Freedom Trail…

Welcome, time tourists! Ready for some Colonial American fun? This week, we continue our autopsy of two American History texts for homeschoolers and Christian schools: a high school text from Bob Jones University Press, United States History for Christian Schools, and an 8th-grade text from A Beka Book, America: Land I Love. As we’ve noted throughout this series, these books don’t necessarily “lie” about history so much as they promote a highly selective version of it, which is of course a necessary corrective to the liberal bias of public education, just like Fox News is fair and balanced. This week, we’ll learn how colonial Americans rejected communism and promoted religious freedom by driving out heretics. Read more on Sundays With The Christianists: American History Textbooks For Homeschooled Witch-Finders…

Hey, kids, it’s been a hoot being your Stealth Editron all day today, as a dry run or shakedown cruise or dress rehearsal for June, when Yr Dok Zoom will be editoring for the three weeks of Yr Editrix’s Great Wonk Your Brains Out Tour. (We are fairly sure we did OK, though some buyer’s remorse may have set in somewhere during our time-management WTF between 12:30 and 3:00 — and even with that, she was not heard to say to herself, “My God! What have I done?” At least not in the Chatcave.)
And so, let’s close out the day with some editorial detritus from the pending-comments queue, because Wonkette Does Not Allow Comments! First up, a set of rants from the weekend, which arrived in response to Gary’s piece on Jim Hoft’s selective case of Nazi-Symbol Astigmatism (Also, #payup, you weasel). Someone with the username “MAD JEWESS” (who very well may be mad, but who may or may not be a Jewess… we don’t doubt their religious affiliation, but how many Jewesses are named “David?” Update: See clarification at end of post)* — just wanted to correct us on a few things: Read more on Deleted E-Mails Of The Week: Progressives Are The True Nazis, And An Important Clarification To Our 2008 St. Patrick’s Day Story…

It had been a while since we heard from our old friend, union thug speed bag Steven Crowder, which was just fine with yr Wonkette. A mommyblog of our delicate constitution can only listen to so many Ashley Judd rape jokes or complaints about how trans people will destroy the integrity of the honorable sport of two people whaling on each other in a cage. If Steven Crowder had beaten a retreat from the limelight to spend his time dousing himself in Axe Body Spray and pretending not to hear all the other guys at the gym laughing as he slides two five-pound weights onto a barbell, the circus still sends plenty of clowns into the ring for us to facepalm over.
Alas, this week the human-shaped anal fistula popped back up on our radar with a charming little video designed to be a middle finger poked in the eye of the 1.7 billion Muslims with whom we share this planet. Because if you can be a dick for no reason other than you like to luxuriate in your own dickishness, you can’t pass that up.
Wait, what’s that, Steven Crowder? You have some sort of intellectual point you are exploring?
(H)e said he wanted to get to the root of terrorism by comparing the “model citizens” of both faiths.
Read more on Fox ‘Comedian’ Steven Crowder Defends Poor Embattled Jesus From Grave Insult Of People Believing What They Want…

It seems that someone in the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which runs the state’s parks, decided that if Bibles are good enough for motel rooms, then sure, why not distribute them in the cabins in state parks, too? But then Ed Buckner, the former head of American Atheists, went camping and found a Bible in his state-owned cabin that he rented from a state agency. Because he hates America, he raised a stink about how the Constitution maybe doesn’t allow the State Of Georgia to act like Motel 6, saying that
“When you go into a state park cabin and the only piece of religious literature there is a Protestant Bible, that suggests the government’s endorsed that particular perspective.”
We do not see why he is so upset, though, because as a whole lot of Christians pointed out, when the state provided him with a Protestant Bible in a state-owned cabin, that is not really an endorsement of any particular religious views because nobody forced him to read the Bible, now did they? Needless to say, they would also not consider it a church-state issue if the cabin’s nightstand contained only a Quran instead. We’re pretty sure of that. Read more on Atheists Accept Georgia Governor’s Kind Offer To Place Literature ‘From All Groups’ In State Campgrounds…

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! This morning we would like to appeal to your faith and spirit of service to pass on the chief message of the New Testament: Gotta get that paper, stack that paper, take they paper. Jesus wants you to make a shit-ton of money, friend, and we have received — in our very own email inbox! — the way to do it.
Ignore those who would suggest the nice email plan is a “pyramid scheme” or a “con game for Jesus”; they are trying to lure the sheep from the herd… of money. Click through, to see what glorious Bible-money awaits! Read more on The End Is Near: Time Running Out To Join Amazing Jesus Pyramid Scheme…

Well, dear Wonketteers, Kid Zoom has had his carefree teen life disrupted by a new source: religious people imposing their ideas on others. I am sick and tired of people assuming that critical thinking is a virus, and injecting their vaccine of religion to keep this disease out of our schools once and for all. And unfortunately, in the great state of Idaho, this train of thought is literally as common as drunken mountain men taking a bath in hot springs. And drunken mountain men taking a bath in hot springs is not a “colorful metaphor.” It is an Actual Thing, one which I have been personally subjected to on two different camping trips. Read more on My Jimmies Remain Rustled: Wonket Teen Korner For Teenz, Religion Edition…

Joseph Farah, the editor of Serious News Outlet WorldNet Daily, has a Serious Question he wishes you to consider: “Are we better off now than we were in 1776?” And while the real answer involves glancing at the illustration above, remembering that women couldn’t vote until 1919, rolling our eyes, and saying “Duh, Joe,” we are pretty sure that we would not get paid for this blog post if we didn’t engage Farah’s dumb column in further detail.
So sure, for the sake of argument, let’s grant that Farah might grudgingly extend to the ladies and the dusky-hued savages the same level of freedom that white men had in 1776, and further assume that he doesn’t literally want us to return to 18th-century levels of medicine and technology, either — which are pretty big concessions, considering that Farah doesn’t mention any of these trivial details of the material realities of life in colonial America, which he insists “wasn’t all that bad.”
Let’s even assume that we could somehow shoehorn most of the good stuff about today’s material reality into the political and economic norms of 1776 — or really, 1791, since Farah immediately shifts the goalposts to a discussion of “constitutionally protected rights we secured through the War of Independence,” as if the Bill of Rights had magically appeared when Jesus handed the Constitution to George Washington. Which is to say, Farah is engaging in historical & cultural fantasy from the get-go, but sure, we’ll play along.
Read more on Joseph Farah Determines ‘We’ Had More Freedom in 1776 Than Today (For Certain Values Of ‘We’)…

Oh are we still doing this? Writing stupid garbage so we can figure out Why It Happened and What We Can Do (Besides Restricting Guns) T0 Make Sure It Never Happens Again? Yes, we are still doing this, or at least, Michelle Malkin is and she has some really new ideas, none of which have to do with banning assault weapons, which is good for our Freedom and a relief. Her ideas include: not letting your kids play video games, and teaching them not to fear death. No, really, these are her ideas on how to make sure no one shoots your kid: don’t let them play video games, and also, teach them not to fear death.
Read more on Michelle Malkin’s Lessons From Newtown: Teach Your Kids Not to Fear Death…